Are you ready for wines from Japan?

Local authorities are supporting an initiative to shine an international spotlight to a grape variety often dismissed within its native country

The words “Japan, wine exporter” have a somewhat unlikely ring but that is the aim of a new organisation, Koshu of Japan, which is keen to shine an international spotlight on a grape variety that is often dismissed within its native country.

I have just made my second visit in 12 years to Yamanashi prefecture, the Bordeaux of Japan in terms of winemaking. Except it reminds me more of Switzerland than Bordeaux. Every square metre in the heavily populated Kofu basin overlooked by Mount Fuji is cosseted. Individual vineyards are tiny, partly thanks to the postwar policy, implemented by General Douglas MacArthur, who oversaw Japan’s reconstruction, of weakening the powerful landowners by redistribution. Farmers are protected. Labour costs are high. And the most-planted vine variety, like the Chasselas that is known as Fendant in French-speaking Switzerland, is also a table grape.

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Jancis Robinson

Perhaps it is this familiarity with the pink-skinned Koshu in the fruit basket that makes many of Japan’s army of wine lovers suspicious of wine made from it. Perhaps it is the fact that Koshu’s thick skins, which help make it resistant to the fungal diseases that can plague other varieties in Japan’s exceptionally humid summers, can all too easily translate in the glass into bitterness. Or perhaps it is simply that Koshu is just too much a part of the national furniture to be taken seriously.

Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are regarded as much more foreign and, therefore, glamorous in Japan. Certainly the likes of Chateau Mercian’s Private Reserve Hokushin Chardonnay 2006 and Suntory’s Tomi Réserve Special 1997 mature red bordeaux blend, top Yamanashi wines from two of the biggest companies, are thoroughly admirable. But it seems unlikely that anyone other than the Japanese would be prepared to pay around £100 a bottle for such wines and, besides, they are made in such small quantities that exporting is hardly viable.

Still, the national government and local authorities are supporting this new initiative to launch an export campaign for varietal Koshu, a drive set in motion only last year by the single-minded Yamanashi wine producer Shigekazu Misawa of Grace Winery. “It is my dream to see Koshu wine recognised for the qualities I know it can have,” he says.

Equally determined is a former sommelier and Master of Wine student Yuka Kudo, whose job it is to translate the plan into sales. She says: “We decided to focus on a market that was stable economically, had a real interest in Japanese cuisine, and was not a major wine producer itself: Britain.” Some may question the stability of the British economy but they would not deny that the culture of sake-drinking is much less established in Britain than in the US, leaving a convenient gap that might just be filled by Koshu on the wine lists of superior Japanese restaurants in the UK.

Accordingly, a delegation of producers flew to London in January and took over Japanese restaurant Umu to prove to some of us fortunate wine writers that Koshu goes with the likes of shiizakana, grilled sea bream with miso, and then held a much bigger tasting for members of the UK wine trade. They stayed at a modest hotel in Tavistock Square so that they could afford to have 15 translators in attendance when showing off their wines.

Lynne Sherriff, Koshu of Japan’s European co-ordinator, says so far three or four British outfits have expressed an interest in importing this exotic new variety – new to Europe that is, even if there is apparently evidence that this vine was grown in Yamanashi a millennium ago. DNA analysis reveals that its genes are predominantly European, prompting some to speculate that it was brought to Japan along the Silk Road.

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There is a problem, however. Neither the grape Koshu nor the appellation Yamanashi are officially registered with the European Union. The second is likely to take much longer to remedy than the first. Understandably, EU regulations do not permit winemakers to add both sugar to increase final alcohol levels and acid to increase final acid levels in the same wine. Koshu grapes are naturally low in both acid and sugar – though the 2009 vintage was exceptional in both these respects – and export requirements could have a long-term beneficial effect on winemaking techniques.

Because Koshu is so light-bodied and transparent, it is best served relatively cool. It is also advisable to drink it relatively young, so I cannot see how the Japanese will manage to persuade British wine buyers to pay more for it than, for example, they would for a Muscadet from one of the best addresses, which means about £10 a bottle retail. It is not going to be easy for Koshu of Japan. (Pending export agreements and other factors make it impossible to predict exactly when the wines will be available in the UK.)

But even the greatest Koshu sceptics such as Hiroshi Yamamoto, famed for his translations of multiple wine books into Japanese, who dismisses Koshu wines (and half his compatriots) as, “essentially without much personality – like Japanese women”, admit that the quality of the better wines made from Koshu has increased enormously in recent years.

I must confess that what appeals to me about Koshu is its very lack of brashness, its delicacy, purity, limpidity, and the way it goes so well with the calmer regions of the Japanese gastronomic landscape. The better examples pair particularly well with sashimi – and indeed any sort of raw fish dish including oysters, with sushi, tempura, and rice – even some gentler-flavoured risottos. There seems something quintessentially Japanese about a fine Koshu. The word zen keeps coming to mind.

As for specific flavours, I found yuzu (a Japanese citrus) in some, lychee in others, and a professional Japanese wine writer assured me that quince was the fruit she found most often in Koshu. My acquaintance with it is still embryonic but the examples that have particularly impressed me so far have come from producers Grace, Haramo, Lumière, Marufuji and Yamanashi.